In this week’s blog post we lift up a newly published article about community-engaged data and statistics in vISIon: The ISI Magazine, featuring the work of several ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ authors. ISI, The International Statistical Institute, focused the second issue of their new magazine on data for social justice and human rights. Five ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ collaborators contributed to an article entitled, “Beyond the data: How community-engaged statistics and data science transforms research on social issues.â€� Joining first author Claire Kelling of Carleton College were ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ contributors Laurie Baker, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, student Paige Bilich ‘26, Carrie Diaz Eaton, Professor of Digital and Computational Studies, Morgan Kinney, Associate Director of Community-Engaged Research and Learning, and Anamika Sen, Assistant Professor of Economics. 

Click the link below and scroll to page 9 to read the full article.

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In community,

Darby to teach ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Mail this conversation is important

At the heart of every campus group is a Community Liaison who mobilizes their peers to engage with our city in meaningful ways. Our clubs and teams have been especially busy this school year, from the wildly successful Trick-or-Treat event in the fall to other focused projects throughout the year.

Athletic outreach remains popular with our active, energetic student body, with sports clinics serving as a driving force for local connection. This year, for instance, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ volleyball team hosted over 20 hours of clinics, and Men’s Lacrosse dedicated more than 50 hours to youth coaching. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Men’s Lacrosse was also a top contender in fundraising challenges once again, raising over $20,000 for Headstrong Mustache Madness (cancer care) and Shave the Date (men’s health), respectively.

The Women’s Lacrosse team was a clear champion of community engagement this school year, drawing over 150 attendees to their clinics. In the spring, they partnered with Lewiston High School and Lewiston Recreation to host eight consecutive weeks of training sessions. In addition to several other workshops, they also participated in a Special Olympics Game night in March, welcoming people of all abilities to enjoy the sport.

Numerous campus organizations participated in this year’s Dempsey Challenge, including the Track and Field and Cross Country teams, Rowing, and Basketball. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Cycling Club is proud to have raised over $2,500 in support of cancer research. The Reindeer Run was another popular event, organized by the Student Academic and Athletic Committee and benefiting Lewiston Public School’s Student Resource Center. SAAC also hosted the “Dream Bigâ€� event on MLK Day, with about 30 local youth attendees and a great volunteer turnout–over 70 Bobcats showed their support!

Food, clothing, and hygiene drives were also huge successes this year. Chicks on Sticks, a club that advocates for inclusivity and accessibility in snowsports, ran a winter apparel drive during January in cooperation with The Store Next Door, which supports unhoused students and others who could use some assistance. Meanwhile, GENCO and the Public Health Initiative collaborated to host the 2nd Annual Menstrual Product Drive and a panel on menstrual poverty. Several clubs and teams supported the annual Thanksgiving food drive by distributing fliers and drumming up support.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students are generous with their time and use their diverse skillsets to improve local infrastructure and community access. In the fall, for example, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Law Society kick-started free LSAT prep sessions for about ten local students to lower barriers to graduate school. As part of an initiative to improve public transportation, the Filmboard collaborated with the City of Lewiston to provide accurate GPS locations for all CITYLINK bus stops.

Art and music groups on campus continue to flourish, hosting lively performances and community events. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Art Society partnered with the Asian Students Association and ArtVan, a mobile art therapy nonprofit, to lead several successful workshops. They also participated in the annual Puddle Arts event in May, when local after-school programs came to campus for an afternoon of art-making and games with ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students. Our a capella groups stayed busy as usual this year. The Crosstones had the honor of singing the National Anthem at the Dempsey Challenge and a Hearts of Pine Soccer game, alongside a whole calendar of other local events, while TakeNote sang for Lewiston Middle School students as part of a psychology/art thesis project and performed at a gallery opening where immigrant mothers in Lewiston presented and sold their pottery. The Small Ensembles Club performed at the college’s Veterans Day event and Candles and Carols.

In still more community engagement efforts from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ clubs and teams, Snaggletooth Magazine collaborated with L/A Arts and Ellard Studios to host Zine Fest this year on Lisbon Street. It was a hit, with over 15 vendors from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and across Maine coming together to distribute prints, zines, paintings, and more. The free event featured live music from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ musicians and the opportunity to create personal artwork. Meanwhile, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Discordians shook things up at Tree Street Youth, bringing their 20-sided dice and creative mindsets to weekly Dungeons and Dragons sessions. Down the street at the YWCA, the Robinson Players taught theater games to local youth. In one of the biggest series of the year, dozens of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students attended Aspirations Days, which is when every Lewiston/Auburn eighth-grader spends a day on campus to learn about future education opportunities and career possibilities.

This busy recap is just a snapshot of all of the community engagement that has taken place this year. We are so grateful to have such dedicated Community Liaisons who keep our clubs/teams engaged and motivated!

I’ve been doing community engaged work here at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for many years, since Peggy Rotundo at what we then called the Center for Service Learning helped me cultivate a language and practice for something I felt so strongly but couldn’t really articulate within the constraints of the academy. Working on various projects over those years, I’ve learned so much from the many partners and local residents I’ve worked with. And it’s so great to watch our students bring their talents, energy and commitment into that work, and then to see how much they learn from the people they meet in Lewiston-Auburn and all around Maine.

That’s the kind of mutual benefit the Harward Center is so good at- and it’s a key part of the democratic engagement that higher education can and should foster and recognize, in all its messy complexity. So I really appreciate the recognition for my small efforts in that messy complexity. And given how much I love reciprocity, I’ll turn the recognition back around at my community partners from over the years, at Don Harward’s leadership and commitment to the college’s civic mission, and at everyone at the Harward Center.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is really well set up to do meaningful community work precisely because the folks at the Harward Center do such a great job structuring and facilitating partnerships that different students, faculty, and staff can contribute to over time, with long term impact even when that needs to build slowly and unevenly and my Harward Center colleagues show such a deep willingness to question their own practices so they keep growing in the work and thus can help the rest of us grow too.  So thank you very much for the recognition, and especially for all the Harward Center makes possible.

When Darby asked me, quoting her, to share “a few words,â€� I naturally thought I would start by sharing an experience 5 years ago. So, clearly, we have a lot of ground to cover. When I was applying to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, I got to speak with a few alumni, and perhaps ignorantly, I asked one, a recent grad at the time, “Be honest, what is it like to live in Lewiston?â€� Without missing a beat, she jumped in to explain the plethora of opportunities that Lewiston would provide and all the ways I would grow from them. But, I will remember one line in particular, “Lewiston is a changing place, and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is a place for changemakers.â€� Back then, that line was a pitch, or at best an unfilled promise.

I have not lived long enough, nor do I have the ego to claim I am a changemaker, but today, as I reflect on four years of community partnerships, I am proud and honored to have been part of the changemaking process. All of us in this room are acutely aware that change is slow; it takes time, dedication, and perseverance to enact it. And those, above all else, are the lessons I will take away from my time living, studying, and building relationships here in Lewiston.

I think back to my first community partnership, in Contemporary Social Problems, taught by my advisor and mentor, Prof. Emily Kane. I spent many afternoons down at Trinity Jubilee Center mopping floors, and as an 18-year-old, I would wonder, “What does this have to do with my classwork?� I no longer wonder what the answer to that question is because, for me, my partnership has taught me so much more than the classroom ever could. Whether it was student teaching or dedicating this year to my Community-Engaged Honors Thesis, I have learned to listen carefully and openly, that sometimes your presence is enough.

As I think about this next big change in my life, I will be guided by these values and the lessons my partners have taught me. And as I enter an uncertain, scary world, I will hold true to what partnership is all about, to work collaboratively and courageously, perhaps not to change the world, but to remind myself that changing a life starts small.

“When I first started community engagement at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, I knew I cared about people and power and justice, but I did not yet have the language for the kind of work I wanted to do.

I started by working with kids, which taught me many beautiful things, including the very humbling truth that the elementary school classroom wasn’t my strongest suit. But even that was a beginning. It helped me understand that community engagement is also about discernment: learning where your care is most useful, where your voice belongs, and where your work can grow.

From there, I found my way to Community Organizing Alliance, the City of Lewiston, youth programs, immigrant student advocacy, voter engagement, campaigns, Juneteenth organizing, and the Harward Center. And somewhere in that journey, I realized that what I had been trying to do had a name. Organizing.

I had always wanted to connect people to resources, to make institutions listen better, to help young people understand their own power, to make people feel less alone inside systems that can be confusing or frightening. I just did not yet know there was a whole field, history, and political tradition for that.

And this year especially has shown me how far that journey has carried me. To go from not knowing the word for the work, to hosting a statewide youth-led gubernatorial candidate forum, and then performing at the Democratic State Convention, felt like a full-circle reminder that community does not only shape what we do. It gives us the courage to enter rooms we once could not imagine ourselves standing in.

What I have learned most is what it means to hold and be held by community. There were moments when I was taking five classes, graduating early, carrying more than people could see, and still trying to show up. But I do not think I did that alone. So much of my courage was lent to me by community: by mentors, friends, organizers, supervisors, and the people who believed in me while I was still becoming.

I am especially grateful to have Reese and Viany here tonight, two supervisors who have been part of that becoming.

This award means so much because it reflects the lesson I will carry with me long after ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½: community is not just where we serve. It is where we learn how to become brave.“

Projects for Peace is an initiative inspired by the late Kathryn W. Davis, an accomplished internationalist and philanthropist. Upon the occasion of her 100th birthday in February of 2007, Mrs. Davis, mother of Shelby M.C. Davis, who funds the Davis UWC Scholars Program, chose to celebrate by committing $1 million to fund the first one hundred Projects for Peace. To date, more than two thousand projects have been implemented through this legacy.

We are happy to uplift this recent ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ News story by our ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Communications Office Staff Writer, Alexandra DeMarco, which provides details about this summer’s projects, as well as the project completed last year by Projects for Peace grant awardee, Axelle Tougouma ’27.

I first connected with Rosati through ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professor Yun Garrison’s psychology course in community-based research. Alongside Luke Singer ’26 and Lindsey Aten ’26, I was tasked with researching how the program influences students’ social-emotional learning. As part of our research, we attended weekly Rosati practices at Conner’s Elementary School. What immediately stood out to me was the other group of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students who showed up independently to volunteer, connect, and have fun with the kids.

At first glance, Rosati is a high energy after-school soccer program. However, through our research we learned that in this program, the soccer ball is actually a tool for holistic development. The program integrates “life sessions” directly into practice, teaching elementary and middle school students:

• Emotional Regulation: Managing frustration after a missed shot
• Communication: Finding their voice to advocate for themselves and teammates
• Leadership: Understanding that true leading means lifting others up, regardless of the score

Bursting the “ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Bubble”

That community-engaged learning (CEL) course inspired me to apply to be a Community Outreach Fellowship through the Harward Center. In that role, I get to spend time at Rosati twice a week while coordinating other ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students to volunteer there. I love watching the bonds that form between ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and Lewiston youth.

It’s easy to stay within the “campus bubble,â€� but stepping into the broader community has been one of the most meaningful parts of my ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ experience. The partnership between ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College and the Lewiston community is invaluable, but it only thrives when we show up. My time at Rosati has taught me that making an impact doesn’t require a grand gesture. It starts with consistency, presence, and a willingness to play and be a little silly.

A bonus is that these relationships are a two-way street. While we offer our time and mentorship, the kids teach us about the diverse cultures and experiences that make Lewiston so special.

Whether through a Harward Center fellowship or simply volunteering an afternoon each week, I encourage everyone to explore the community beyond campus. When we engage with Lewiston, we become part of the fabric of the place we call home for four years. 

In her Substack publication, “Learning That Ubuntu Is Not Self-Erasure,� she offers a moving reflection on what it means to belong to community in ways that are sustaining, honest, and fully human. Her essay speaks to the beauty and difficulty of care, and invites us to think more deeply about service, selfhood, and the values that sustain collective life.

This is my debut blog post, which I have written in the form of an interview by Tamanda Namangale ‘27. Tamanda is a Bonner Leader  at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and has joined the Harward Center as a student intern this semester. 

What’s a moment in your first weeks in this role that made you think: “Oh wow, this is exactly where I’m supposed to beâ€�?

Ooh–great question! I’ll be honest; there have been quite a few of those moments lately! For example, there are evenings when the Bonner Leaders are having dinner and conversation in one room of the Harward Center and the Community Engaged Research Fellows are having dinner and program in another, or when Shabbat is happening in the Multifaith Chaplaincy. The whole house (Wood Street) is warmly lit and just completely alive with people engaged in conversation, deep connection, and yummy food! These have quickly become some of my favorite times to be in the Harward Center.

When people hear “Center Operations,â€� they might picture spreadsheets and logistics. What’s the most surprisingly human part of your job?

Yeah, so spreadsheets and logistics *are* a big part of my job, which is okay; I can really geek out on that stuff, and I enjoy it. The surprisingly human part is when we’re planning logistics for a meeting, and if it’s a meeting where we’ll be having refreshments, the rest of the team knows exactly what the community partners, students, and faculty/staff guests would like to eat. I think it really shows how much my colleagues genuinely take time to know people and how much they care about others.

What’s one thing you wish more students knew about you?

My first job at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ was in Dining Services. I worked in on-call catering and eventually had a regular position in the Den. I was twenty-five at the time (only a few years older than the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seniors!), and my daughter was in preschool. We came to campus often, and students and staff doted on my daughter. By the time she started kindergarten, I had become so inspired by the students (and faculty and staff) at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€“and so fired up about academia–that I enrolled in a degree program and went to school part time at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston campus. I would work in the Den until one or two in the morning and then go to Coram (which had a 24/7 computer lab at that time), where I would work on homework for hours before going home early in the morning. When my daughter started first grade, I left ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to go to school full-time. Returning to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 2010 and joining the [Office of College] Advancement was like coming home. When my daughter and I would go to Commons, the staff there would tell her how they remembered her from when she was little. It was very moving and made us both feel like we belonged. I wish more students knew how important that feeling was to me and how important I think it is for everyone who comes here (as a student, an employee, or a guest) to feel that way. I really value being part of a team that prioritizes the kind of partnerships and relationships that create a sense of belonging, both on campus and out in the community. Each of the jobs I have held at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has taught me something about this place and something about myself, and learning those things has prepared me for this role. I am excited to join the Harward Center and grateful for the journey that led me here.

Thank you for coming up with these questions, Tamanda. I am grateful to you for the work you’re doing in the Harward Center and for taking the time to help me write my first blog post!

Prof. Read’s class teamed up with the residents of Montello Heights, a retirement community located about one mile from campus. The Activities Director, Chris Packard, and the residents of Montello Heights have a long history of welcoming ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students for interactive visits to play games, do crafts, and build relationships. In alignment with the topic of Family Stories, Read’s students engaged one-on-one with seniors for conversational interviews focused on learning each other’s stories of family and community. For their first writing assignment of the course, each student crafted a narrative piece about their new friend; at the end of the semester, they returned as a class with a bound book of the seniors’ stories to share with them. 

Luca Bernardin ‘29 sets the scene and shares how unexpected connections to their own family’s stories led them to a meaningful conversation with two residents:

On a windy Monday in October, my classmates and I loaded into a white Bobcat Express van and took a short ride to Montello Heights. After a brief accidental detour onto the second floor, we arrived in a large common space, in which Montello Heights residents and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students were able to introduce themselves to one another. Upon hearing the introductions of two residents, Joanne and Margaret, I felt particularly intrigued. Joanne spoke of her father’s family hailing from Holyoke, Massachusetts, only thirty minutes from my own home. Margaret shared her experience obtaining her social work degree, which my mother just completed, as well. 

As everyone settled into their matches and began asking their pre-prepared questions of their new acquaintances, the students were introduced to scenes of Lewiston and other Maine locales from the 20th century:

As I sat down with Cecile she began telling me about what Lewiston was like well before my arrival this fall. She explained how there were a lot of shoe shops in the area, and the job opportunities attracted people from all around Maine and Canada to find work in this industry. To give a concise summary, Cecile says that,“it’s milk, it’s shoes and it’s French people.â€� She can name every milk and shoe shop that was once in business here. There were too many French people for her to remember them all. 

-Matthew O’Reilly ‘29

Dianne grew up in Fort Kent, Maine, a rural town near the border with Canada. As the fifth-born of eleven children in a family that struggled financially, Dianne had a childhood that was full of both responsibility and adversity. Her father was Canadian and immigrated to the United States from Dalhousie, Nova Scotia. At home, they only spoke French, which presented a challenge when Dianne started kindergarten in an English-speaking, one-room schoolhouse. However, she picked up the language within two weeks of attending school and recalls that “it was amazing how much we learned from the other children.�

-Margaret Carlsmith ‘29

The students also gleaned insights from the retirees about their careers in fields that have changed greatly, but where advice from many years of experience still resonates:

Claudette was an inspiration in many ways. A career nurse at a now-closed institution, then named the Holy Ghost Hospital for the Incurables, she has cared for a wide range of emotionally and medically difficult cases, which were often just misunderstood and today would be completely curable conditions. … I myself want to go into medicine as a physician, so this conversation hit home for me as she offered invaluable advice on how to earn the respect and work well with nurses, whose expertise often anchors patient care. 

-George Matviak ‘29

Of course, in keeping with the class topic, there were also countless stories shared about family. From growing up on the family farm and becoming a secondary parent to the youngest siblings, to losing count of how many grandchildren they now have and finding family amongst close friendships, the seniors at Montello Heights had much to say about their families through the years. They shared stories of hardworking parents,

Sue’s father, after working at the mill, worked at our very own ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, where he was a maintenance worker, while her mother worked in the dorms. This caused happy memories for her–going to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ football games and remembering all of the other maintenance workers and their speaking French almost exclusively.

-Finn Merrick ‘29

And of grown children who make them proud:

Shirley’s stories about her children revealed not just the passage of time, but the way family values evolve through generations. Her children grew up to live very different lives: some stayed in Maine, others moved to Florida or Massachusetts, but they all inherited her drive to work hard and help others.“All of mine had something beyond high school,â€� she said proudly. Some went to college and some to the military. They all found their own way. 

-Alina Hou ‘29

Ultimately, each student found something to connect to or a piece of wisdom to bring forward as they begin to shape their own life stories. Abdelkhadir Ahmed ‘29 summarized eloquently what he learned from the trio he chatted with:

When I left Montello that day, I realized I hadn’t just heard stories, I had seen what family means through three different lives. . . That’s when I understood what they had all been saying in their own ways – family isn’t just who you start with, it’s who you stay connected to, even when time keeps moving. 

We look forward to continuing to connect generations of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ies with our neighbors at Montello Heights. Next up will be Prof. Cynthia Baker’s 100-level religious studies class in which students will interview residents this March about religion and community building throughout their lives.

While the Harward Center took the lead across two years in collecting the quantitative and qualitative data and crafting the narrative for the 89-page application, the story we told is not our own; it is the story of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College’s deep, sustained, and actualized commitment over many years to partnering with our neighbors in Lewiston and Maine to provide real world learning experiences that advance community goals while building useable knowledge and skills and fostering civic engagement and leadership. For insight into this accomplishment, we hope you will take a moment to , written by two current students who are deeply involved in the off-campus community, and this recent ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ News story.

This fall, Biology professor Eric LeFlore integrated community-engaged learning into both his BIO 195 and BIO 470 classes to get students out of the classroom and into the field. The collaborative project brought students, faculty, and local organizations together to study wildlife in the Lewiston-Auburn area. Professor LeFlore shared the big picture: “The work is contributing to a longer study investigating the best non-invasive survey techniques for cryptic carnivores, with a focus on bobcat.â€� LeFlore joined the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty in fall 2023, bringing expertise in large carnivores, human dimensions of wildlife management, and conservation biology. 

Early in the semester, first-year Biology students taking BIO 195 and senior-level students taking BIO 470 spent class time deploying wildlife cameras in various locations across the region. Sites were identified by LeFlore in collaboration with the Harward Center, where we tapped into long standing partners in the environmental conservation area, including Stanton Bird Club, Androscoggin Land Trust, Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission, and the Auburn Conservation Commission. Among the locations the classes visited were well-known recreational sites like Garcelon Bog and Sherwood Forest. 

In an end-of-semester poster session, the first-year students shared insights they gleaned from analyzing the roughly one month of footage they captured. Analysis projects were undertaken in small groups and involved tracking and comparing different species in terms of temperature changes, different times of day, and predator vs. prey species. Stanton Bird Club President Jeri Maurer attended the poster session to hear students present the findings of their work at the Thorncrag property and beyond. Maurer noted the importance of engaging young people in conservation work, as well the deep ties Stanton Bird Club has maintained with ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College since the club’s founding in 1919, named in honor of Dr. Jonathan Y. Stanton, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Professor who taught Ornithology.

As a first foray into fieldwork, the class offered first-year students an opportunity to try their hand at new research methods while learning about some of the many conservation areas local to the Lewiston Auburn area. While bobcat sightings were few, students encountered many other species while sifting through what many of them described as a great number of images. Animals captured on camera included flying squirrels, deer, and raccoons. 

By analyzing the camera trap data, students gained insights into the distribution and behavior of animals in our area, which will be shared with local conservation partners. The project’s impact extends beyond the immediate data collection. Thesis and research students will continue the work over the winter, building on the foundation laid by the classes this fall. We look forward to seeing what Professor LeFlore and his students encounter next!